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We all know that prolonged stress can negatively affect our mind and bodies. We also know that working out is possibly the healthiest way to relieve stress. But do you ever find yourself working out to relieve stress and yet you are still thinking about the things that stress you out? Or are there things you encounter during the workout itself that stress you out? I think we could all agree that if there was an easy way we could reduce the stress in our lives we would do it! Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to reduce our individual life stresses, which consequently, just thinking about can add more stress! You may not be able to remove all the stress in your life, but you can at least try to focus on not allowing stress into your workouts.

The gym where I work out in the evenings used to have the music on REALLY LOUD! It was so loud, that even with my headphones and music on, I could still hear the gym’s music. I was forced to turn up the volume of my music in order to block out the gym’s music but I can only handle loud volumes of music for a certain amount of time. One night, the music was louder than usual, and I was having trouble focusing on my workout because of it. I became so irritated and stressed out by the loud music, I had to leave the gym after only about 15 minutes. I was angry and upset because I hadn’t finished my workout but I didn’t want to continue because the loud music was causing me too much stress and I simply could not focus. The next day I contacted the gym and asked if they would lower the volume of the music at night and much to my relief they did. No more unbearably loud music while I’m working out!

I know that my experience with the gym’s loud music was a small stressor considering what some deal with, but it was enough to make me leave the gym. The point is, try to avoid anything that you know or discover that causes you stress while you are working out. Maybe you need to not answer calls while you’re working out or leave your phone in the locker. Maybe you need to have a workout buddy to help distract you from your life stresses when you’re working out. Whatever it is, try to be very aware of anything that stresses you while you’re working out and figure out what you need to do to eliminate that stress. You owe it to yourself to have at least one part of your day where all you have to do is focus on YOU!